Blogger arrested for posting financial predictions

New York, January 29,
2009--A South Korean blogger in custody since January 7, charged with spreading
false information online, should be set free, the Committee to Protect
Journalists said today.

Park Dae-sung, described in international news reports asan unemployed, self-taught economist, anonymously
posted predictions about the global financial climate in online bulletin boards
under the pen name "Minerva," to public acclaim in Korea.

Prosecutors charged him under electronic communications laws--which
make it a crime to spread rumors against the public interest--on January 22,
with destabilizing the foreign exchange market in a December 29 posting, the
reports said. He had alleged that the government was urging financial
institutions to stop buying dollars in a bid to shore up the won, The
Associated Press reported. Although some traders said they had been encouraged
to offload the dollar, the government issued a denial and Park subsequently withdrew
the post, according to the International
Herald Tribune. Also in question is a July post he wrote saying the Finance
Ministry suspended all foreign currency exchanges, according to Time magazine, quoting official Korean
news agency Yonhap.

"The use of communication laws to imprison Park Dae-sung is
a troubling step backward for democracy in South Korea. He should be released
immediately," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "Expressing opinions
about the economy online is not a crime."

Park faces a maximum five-year prison term or a 50 million
won ($36,360) fine if convicted in his trial, which has not yet been set, news
reports said. He is seeking bail, which was initially denied last week, AP
reported.

South
Korea has a lively online community and Park
convinced thousands of followers he had financial expertise. Local newspapers
carried his forecasts, which included the collapse of U.S. investment
bank Lehman Brothers, according to the reports. But the government--"usually
able to assert its views by strenuously voicing its opinions to newspapers and
broadcasters by way of phone calls," according to Time--was unable to locate him prior to his detention this month.

"I wrote articles to help those people alienated from the
government...who have suffered from the financial crisis," Park told reporters
after his arrest.